In April we looked at Taste of Denmark, a small, Danish bakery in Lakewood, and for June we’ll be going to another European style business: the Continental Deli in Cherry Creek. You’ll find a combination of German style meat, bread, pasta, and other goodies here to take with you or eat there. The food here is made in Colorado, but trust me, it’s legit.

Their sausages are made by parent company Continental Sausage using traditional methods like chopping the meat by hand, not grinding, and they use naturally-raised, hormone-free meat, all sourced as locally as possible. If you’ve never had real German sausage, prepare to be blown away. Although I’ve only tried a few of their many offerings, I’ve yet to be disappointed. Just the thought of their beer brats makes me salivate and trust me, they’ll melt your brain if you eat one when you’re high. There are also a ton of other options like Weisswurst and Bockwurst (both primarily made with veal) which can be harder to find around here.

Every day they have a lunch special which you can eat in their small dining area and usually includes a sandwich, chips, and soda. Feel free to grab something else while you’re there, there’s also soups, salads, and, of course, brats to pick from. Some of these things may be an acquired taste, but at the very least it’s something new to try.

They also get their bread from a traditional German bakery in Colorado Springs. It’s in surprisingly high demand and never seems to stay on the shelf for long, so if you happen to find some here, you should definitely take advantage of it. A lot of “traditional” bakeries still add corn syrup or plain sugar to their bread to try to appeal to the American market. But not this one. Their list of ingredients is pretty simple: wheat, water, yeast, and seeds or grains. Maybe one or two other things, depending on the specific type of bread, but that’s about it. I picked up some Brötchen from here which tasted just like the real thing as if they’d come from Germany and not The Springs. And as always, there are also other options to try out which you may have never tried before like Sonnenblumenkernbrot (sunflower seed bread), Kürbiskernbrot (pumpkin seed bread), and Zweibelbrot (bread with roasted onion), all of which are very tasty.

In the grocery section you can find imports like Ritter Sport chocolate (look for a hazelnut or coffee one), Kinder Bueno and Hippos, Milka candies, Spätzel, German magazines and newspapers, and so much more. If you come from a German family, it’s worth a visit, if for no other reason than to try some traditional food from Germany, made the way it’s supposed to be made. If you speak the language, go in on the right day and you might find some of the staff who also speak it and you can practice your skills or even just listen in on some of the interactions. German migrants from all over Colorado come here to buy their meats and breads because it’s simply the best in the state. Even if you aren’t German and you don’t speak the language, there’s so much good food here that you should try it out at least once. The price tag is a little high, but trust me, it’s worth every penny to get real, artisanal food which you can’t find anywhere else in Colorado.